Blue Mass Group

I decided that the best way to learn about Paul Tsongas view on health insurance was to research  by going to the library and reviewing the Lowell Sun and Boston Globe.  In an interesting article from 1993, I found what I was looking for in the Sun.  It was titled: Tsongas stumps for reform of U.S. health-care system. (lack of caps in the original). In it, he is speaking to the National Youth Leadership Forum on Medicine at the Massachusetts College of the Arts.  In it, he says that the easy part is coming up with access for everyone.  The difficult part, he says, is paying for it.   In the article, he talks about the coming friction between generations that will be caused by making the younger generation pay for the retirement expenses, including the medical expenses, of the older generation. He expressed his sentiment that young people would grow up and become persons in the medical profession who are not just working to help the sick, but expecting to make some profit in exchange for their studies. The United States medical system is a for profit system, he says. And, doctors want to have some say in the [...]

AS I predicted in the aforementioned op-ed, the DC Circuit refused to hear the Parker Decision enbanc, effectively handing their arrogant mayor and his city attorney their heads.

Notwithstanding this setback, these two twits seem determined to lead with their chins again ? this time in the hallowed chambers of the United States Supreme Court.

You may recall that a couple of folks who reside in D.C., and who are tired of having a situation in which only outlaws have guns, applied for permits to arm themselves, even if only in their residences. The District denied their request, leading to a federal court appeal, and ultimately to the DC Circuit Court of appeals. The Circuit reversed the lower court?s judgement and remanded for a corrective adjustment in DC?s behavior.

Same subject — can companies really pass on the costs of a tax increase to consumers? Do they pass on the benefits of a subsidy? Here’s more bogosity from Sen. John Kyl of Arizona, regarding this week’s defeated attempt to tax big oil to fund renewables research: “When you put a tax on a business it gets passed on to consumers,” argued Sen. John Kyl, R-Ariz. “Instead of reducing gasoline prices, this bill is going to add to the cost of gasoline.” I’d like to ask Sen. Kyl how much the oil companies decided to lower their prices after being given “exploration subsidies” in the 2005 energy bill boondoggle. Before Katrina. Remember that? How gas prices went down? And now we’ve got so much gas, heck, it’s back to $1.50 a gallon. Right?

In his remarks at the Municipal Partnership Act rally at the State House on Thursday, Patrick pretty much destroyed any argument Verizon might have for hanging on to their 1915 telephone pole tax exemption. Below Boston got the transcript: Now, the final step: the MPA proposes to eliminate a 92year old law. Exempting phone companies from paying the same property taxes that the rest of us pay. That law was written in 1915 to expand telephone coverage in Massachusetts. In fact, to create universal telephone coverage in Massachusetts. Now with communities everywhere all over the commonwealth struggling to fund services, homeowners struggling to pay property taxes, I think it’s time to retire that law. It’s done its job. This old law just makes no sense today. It did once. It doesn’t now. You and I pay property taxes. Most other businesses pay property taxes. the electric company pays property taxes on it’s poles – even the same poles by the way that it shares with the phone company. So understand the point. The electric company pays property on the same poles that the phone company does not. No-one is asking that the phone company to do more than to pay [...]

For horserace fans: Rasmussen’s national poll from June 18th has Clinton at 38%, Obama at 27% and Edwards at 16%.  With shrinking undecideds among likely Democratic primary voters, the other Democrats – who remain far back with Richardson at 3%, Biden at 2% and Kucinich, Dodd and Gravel at 1% each – are given little chance of moving into the top tier: It is interesting to note that 81% of likely Democratic Primary Voters currently express support for one of the top three candidates… Barring a major mistake by one of the big three candidates, it is difficult to envision a scenario for any of the second tier candidates to capture the nomination.